Bush Condemns Leaders Who ‘Sit Down At The Table’ And ‘Have Pictures Taken’ With ‘Tyrants’

It will send a discouraging message to those who wonder whether America will continue to work for the freedom of prisoners. It will give great status to those who have suppressed human rights and human dignity. […]

Sitting down at the table, having your picture taken with a tyrant such as Raul Castro, for example, lends the status of the office and the status of our country to him. He gains a lot from it by saying, look at me, I’m now recognized by the President of the United States.

Perhaps Bush forgot all the times that he sat down and had his picture taken with leaders of questionable human rights credentials:

‘U.S. solutions should not be imposed on African leaders,’

Bush told Bob Geldof in a new Time interview. Geldof noted that if the President happened to apply this thought to Iraq, it “would have profound implications on the man’s understanding of how the world functions.” During the interview, Bush also insisted, “I think history will prove me right,” regarding his efforts to rid the world of “tyranny.”

Joe Carraro and others say they were threatened with smear jobs if they challenged Darren White for CD 1Janice Arnold-Jones and Mark Boitano were told to forget running for Heather Wilson’s seatArnold-Jones is stunned by Republican smear tactics

The New Mexico Attorney General’s Office is checking out allegations that state Sen. Joe Carraro, an Albuquerque Republican, was threatened with a vicious smear campaign—including threats bring up and 20-year-divorce case and attempts to embarrass his children—if he went through with his decision to seek his party’s nomination for the First Congressional District seat.

The AG’s office is analyzing information to see if it warrants a full-blown investigation, said office spokesman Phil Sisneros. …

Carraro, who says the threats amount to extortion, has also taken the allegations to the FBI. He says the feds should be involved because some of the threats involved a former state Republican Party official who now works in Texas.

“These people should be in jail the way they’re threatening people,” Carraro said.

Carraro, who is running for the congressional seat being vacated by Heather Wilson, isn’t the only one who said they were threatened by Republican Party insiders. …

Arnold-Jones said that she went to state Republican Party Chairman Alan Weh last October when she was considering a run for Wilson’s seat. She said Weh told her she should forget the run because she’d never be able to raise the necessary money. She also said she was told that the party had already decided that White was the party’s candidate.

“The Republican Party first started telling me that I couldn’t raise any money,” Arnold-Jones said. “Then there were veiled threats and phone calls to my daughter. I was told that if I pursued this they would go after my daughter. [mjh: WTF?]

“My daughter is at the university. She is young, 20-years-old, and pretty conservative, but not nearly conservative enough. I did get an e-mail that was apparently cut and pasted from somebody else’s e-mail, and it said that they wanted the chairman to explain why I was tearing the Republican Party apart and that if he didn’t control me I would have primary opposition. I was stunned.”

Arnold-Jones said she got five phone calls during the period urging her not to run. She met once with White, who also urged her not to get into the race.

“One phone call said that Darren was a formidable opponent and that it would go badly for me if I pursued this,” Arnold-Jones said. “There was a face-to-face conversation with someone who said that they would go after my daughter.”

Remember when conservatives lambasted lenient liberal judges? Remember when conservative rage over judicial judgment lead to mandatory sentencing? Get tough on crime! Do the crime, do the time! Three strikes and you’re out!

Let us also remember when conservatives preached about personal responsibility. And their endless fear over society devolving into chaos.

We need to remind ourselves of these conservative values because conservatives themselves can’t recall them. (Studies do indicate that living in constant fear does affect memory.) Case in point: Conservative objections to a murderer being sentenced to two whole years in prison. Gasp, the horror, the injustice!

It seems that it is better than OK — it’s laudable — to chase someone down the street and kill them on the *suspicion* that they broke into your car. Hell, it’s in the bible, right? That’s why we have guns, right? Well, as long as you’re white and a family-values poster child.

My name is Mark Justice Hinton and I support Barack Hussein Obama for president. There are things I admire about Hillary Rodham Clinton, wife of William Jefferson Clinton, and a couple of things I don’t like about her. Still, we can all — including countless Independents and Republicans — celebrate the inevitable end to the reign of terror of George Duhbya Bush. (The duhbya stands for dumbass.)

What’s in a name? Are you embarrassed by your name? Has anyone abused you about your name since the third grade? If so, odds are that person was quite an idiot, possibly a bully. (Let me take this opportunity to apologize to John Dimdahl and Lush Limbaugh for anything I may have said to hurt them. I may be a hypocrite, but I’m no idiot nor bully.)

Everybody better get used to Obama’s full name. It’s going in the history books and it will be in the media every day for at least another four years, maybe eight. Like it or not.

I appreciate the sentiment John McCain expressed regarding treating one’s adversaries with respect. However, I don’t believe the childish prattle of his former supporter warrants censorship. Go ahead: Make an ass of yourself mocking Obama. It’s the essence of impotence.

While Big Mac was being so noble, someone should have asked why he didn’t rebuke the woman at one of his townhall meetings who asked “what are we going to do about the bitch?” Instead of rebuking her, he joined the laughter. That’s respect?

A supporter of Ariz. Sen. John McCain repeatedly used Barack Obama’s middle name, Hussein, while ridiculing him as a terrorist sympathizer in an introductory speech for McCain at a rally here this morning.

Immediately afterward, former Ohio congressman and former Bush administration official Rob Portman praised the supporter, talk show host Bill Cunningham, as an “extremely important” part of the McCain campaign.Cunningham, who is known locally for his right-wing, fiery rhetoric on the radio, challenged the media to “stop taking sides and begin covering Barack Hussein Obama” as they do Republicans.He used Obama’s middle name two more times and referred to him as “a hack, Chicago-style Daley politician who’s picturing himself as change. When he gets done with you, all you’re going to have in your pocket is change.”He then mocked foreign policy statements of “Barack Hussein Obama,” calling him the “fraud from Chicago” and saying that if Obama were to be elected president he would meet with the leaders of enemy nations. He said the “world leaders who want to kill us” will be “singing Kumbaya together around the table with Barack Obama.”Later in his comments, he said there is a big difference between Secretaries of State “Condoleezza Rice and Madeleine Albright, who looks like death warmed over. I think there’s a difference between Condi and Madeleine. “He also referred to former Gen. Wesley Clark as a “Clinonista.”McCain did not mention Cunningham’s comments in his speech to the enthusiastic crowd. But afterward, in comments to reporters, McCain apologized profusely for “any disparaging remarks” made about his Democratic rivals.“Whatever suggestion was made that was in any way disparaging to the integrity, character, honesty of either Sen. Obama or Sen. Clinton was wrong and I condemn it,” McCain said. “I will take responsibility and I apologize for it.”

Pressed by reporters, McCain said he will “make sure nothing like that ever happens again” and said “I absolutely repudiate such comments.”

A spokesman for Obama said that “We appreciate Senator McCain’s remarks. It is a sign that if there is a McCain-Obama general election, it can be intensely competitive but the candidates will attempt to keep it respectful and focused on issues,” said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton.Portman said after McCain’s speech that Cunninghams is “often controversial” and that it did not surprise him that Cunningham would have made news with his comments at the rally.But on stage earlier, Portman was effusive about Cunningham’s speech. “Willie, you’re out of control again. So, what else is new? But we love him,” Portman told the crowd. “But I’ve got to tell you, Bill Cunningham lending his voice to this campaign is extremely important.”The sarcastic speech by Cunningham followed comments by another supporter, a local prosecutor from the Cincinnati area, who mocked Obama’s lack of military service and his message of optimism.Joe Deters called Obama the “presumptive Democratic candidate” and predicted that Obama’s success will quickly fade as people see through his rhetoric.He said that will happen “after the vortex of love for this candidate stops — and I feel so badly for the Clintons about this, don’t you? — and everybody sobers up and says what does this guy really stand for?”Deters whipped up the audience of about 400 by accusing Obama of supporting policies that Republicans hate.“How about raising your taxes? How about that?” Deters said, prompting loud “boos” from the crowd.“How about universal health care?”More boos.“How about the Democrats fighting with each other on how quickly they will surrender to the terrorists in Iraq?”More boos.Deters then questioned Obama’s lack of military experience. He cited McCain’s well-known history of having spent five years in a Vietnamese prison cell and having two sons serving “in uniform,” and then accused Obama of having never risked anything.“The only thing he has ever risked was a filing fee for reelection,” Deters said. “That’s the only thing he ever risked.”

Barack Obama: Good for the Jews. Tim Russert: Bad for the Jews. And for America. « The Edge of the American West

In fact, on Sunday Obama talked about some of those issues with machers in the Cleveland Jewish community. Which, if you don’t know, is a surprisingly large and very active community (check the previous link for some details), notable for giving enormous amounts of money to various causes, both Jewish and not. It’s also an important part of the Democratic machine in Northeast Ohio. Which is the bedrock of the Democratic machine in Ohio more broadly. Which, if you look at recent elections — up to the 2006 midterms and governor’s race — is a machine that’s been in very bad repair. Regardless, Jews matter in Ohio Democratic politics. So Obama went to talk to them last Sunday. And he had some interesting things to say. [mjh: Read the rest…]

McCain Rated As America’s Worst Senator For Children

Today, the Children’s Defense Fund Action Council released its 2007 Nonpartisan Congressional Scorecard. CDF reports some positive news, particularly that average scores for members of Congress “improved from the previous three years with more Members scoring 100 percent than in 2004, 2005 or 2006.”

Cal Thomas’ website has been revamped and I don’t know what to think about the graphic below (compare it with the graphic at the top of this page).

More importantly, I visited Calcified Cal’s site looking for his latest column in which he excoriates senseless captialism, even as he continues to love Republicanism and loathe Democrats. Talk about disconnects. That’s almost as looney as Duhbya’s belief that Republicans will sweep the House, Senate and Whitehouse in the fall. Guffaw, snort, haw-haw, ROFLOL! Wait, a minute — maybe Diebold will make that happen. peace, mjh

Some of the lust for bigger and better is human nature, but a lot is the result of consumerism. The Timex watch is no longer enough. We now must have a Rolex, though both accurately tell time. The adequate low-end automobile is insufficient. We must trade up to a luxury car with numbers and letters on the rear that mean nothing, but convey “status.” And the house we are living in, which would have been more than adequate for our parents and certainly our grandparents, must be upgraded to larger digs in order to impress, if not growing families, than enlarged egos. [mjh: I think that should be ‘then’.]

When none of this brings the promised happiness and fulfillment, we turn to drink, or pills, or counselors, or divorce court and seek significance in new things and relationships on what quickly becomes a personal boulevard of broken dreams. …

When wants and needs are confused, desires become entitlements and politicians are afraid to tell people what they need to hear. Instead they tell them what they want to hear. Anger and envy result, as well as frustration with a political system that was not designed to indulge its citizens in their lusts or subsidize their greed.

Who will tell us that unending and expanding prosperity with home values constantly rising and a citizenry always able to afford them is a fantasy that is bound to end in heartache for those who buy into it?

The economy isn’t bad. We are bad for believing that more is better and the most is best. We have an abundance of things, but a deficit of character. The economy is a false god, a golden calf. When this false god doesn’t deliver, we complain to politicians who are happy to accept our faith in them to give us what we want — if we will only pledge to them our allegiance at election time.